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PORTIONS OF SEVERAL SPEECHES 



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HON. H: S.'FOOTE, OF MISSISSIPPI, 



ON 



THE QUESTION OF ADJOURNMENT. 



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DEUVEREO 



IN_THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, COMMENCING JUNE 22, 1848. 



( ■■■' 



WASHINGTON: 

PRIKTED AT TH^ CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 

K^ ? 1848. 






i 



QUESTION OF ADJOURNMENT. 




The Resolution from the House fixing the time for 
the adjournment of the two Houses of Congress 
on the 17th July, being under consideration — 
Mr. FOOTE said: Mr. President, the question 
of adjournment has awakened more feeling in the 
Senate, and given rise to a much more extended 
discussion than any of us anticipated. Heartily 
concurring in all that has been heretofore said in 
opposition to fixing a day, at this time, upon 
which the deliberations of Congress at the present 
session shall be made to terminate, I seize the op- 
portunity of stating an additional consideration, 
which of itself would be of sufficient cogency to 
control my action upon this subject. There is, 
at least, one measure, before the adoption of which, 
Congress, in my judgment, should never consent 
to adjourn: I allude to the organization of Terri- 
torial Governments in Oregon, California, and 
New Mexico. I know that there are question's of 
peculiar delicacy and importance involved in the 
contemplated establishment of Territorial Govern- 
ments in the regions named; but I am only the 
more desirous, on that account, that they should 
be boldly met and promptly decided. If these 
questions remain open during the Presidential con- 
test, it is impossible to conjecture what conse- 
quences may arise. The intense excitement now 
raging in two opposite quarters of the Confederacy, 
and every day growing more and more intense, 
may put at hazard the Union itself, and will cer- 
tainly (;all into being two sectional factions, divided 
by a mere geographical line, which will never 
cease to war upon each other as long as the Union 
shall continue. I regard the present as far the 
most auspicious period which will ever occur for 
obviating this great danger, and once more restoring 
fraternal amity and concord. 

Besides, sir, I am willmg to confess that I am 
not a little desirous of ascertaining, ere Congress 
shall adjourn, of what precise materiel the Whig 
party is composed — whether that party, if it can 
reach the seats of authority once more, will be in- 
clined to enforce its ancient views of governmental 
policy, or will be content, as has been promised 
by, certain leading members of it, to permit the 
policy of the present Administration to remain 
undisturbed. There is still another point upon 
which 1 desire to obtain a more satisfactory expla- 
nation than has heretofore been given. Will Gen- 
eral Taylor, if elected, be willing to use the veto 
power against the Wilmot proviso? On this sub- 
ject his language has been so far most painfully 
ambiguous and contradictory; and in the two sec- 
tions of the Union he is claimed both as friendly 



and adverse to this accursed measure. IN'or has 
the language of his friends and supporters in the 
two Houses of Congress been more satisfactory. 
Sir, the people are resolved not to be hoodwinked 
any longer by the dexterous tacticians of party; 
they are resolved to have explicit declarations of 
opinion from all who aspire- to their suflfrages in 
regard to this all-important question. No arts of 
evasion or subterfuge will any longer avail those 
who have heretofore practised them. Should the 
Whig leaders here be compelled to show their 
hands and avow their real principles and designs, 
the speedy overthrow of their party could not be 
possibly avoided. This they well know; and 
therefore it is that so much anxiety has been 
evinced by certain gentlemen to bring about an im- 
mediate adjournment. I am not willing to gratify 
them at the expense of the country; and I shall 
therefore, as I have already said, vote against 
fixing any particular day of adjournment for the 
present. 

I am free to acknowledge that the conduct of 
Whig Senators, in desiring to avoid a positive com- 
mittal upon the great questions now in agitation, 
is in excellent keeping with the course pursued by 
the Convention of their party which lately assem- 
bled in Philadelphia; which remarkable body is 
known to have met and adjourned without the least 
declaration of principles, or the most remote allusion 
to the objects which they desire to attain. The 
fabled journey of ^neas to hell was not a whit 
more mysterious than the movements of those wise 
men who the other day were seen counselling to- 
gether in Independence Hall. Truly may it be 
said of them, as of the son of Anchises and the 
Sibyl, ibant sola sub node. Nor was the idea of 
the golden offering to Proserpine entirely forgotten 
among them; for did not the president of this 
famous body, even in his opening speech, announce 
to the multitude who surrounded him, boldly to 
inscribe upon their banner the significant motto, 
"To the victors belong the spoils.'" I am deci- 
dedly of opinion, that we are bound, as liberal men, 
to make more or less allowance for the members 
of the Philadelphia Convention; we should not 
perhaps censure them too severely for not laying 
down a regular party platform for the opening 
Presidential campaign. It had been undoubtedly 
ascertained among them, that no political creed 
could be devised to which any considerable num- 
ber of their body would be able to subscribe, and 
therefore was it judged most discreet to forego en- 
tirely the consideration of everything like principle. 
Availability and the spoils of office were alone 



looked to. It was not desired to give offence to 
any who might be inclined to support General 
Taylor on any possible ground; and the utmost 
care was accordingly employed to avoid the intro- 
duction of topics which might produce disputation, 
and develop contrariety of sentiment. It was 
resolved, in the language of St. Paul, " to be all 
things to all men," at least for a season; or, in the 
well-known words of a distinguished Whig of Vir- 
ginia, it was deemed politic to extend the Whig 
" net so widely as to catch birds of every feather." 
Such was the conduct of the Whig Convention of 
1840; and succeeding then in deluding the people, 
it is hoped that similar arts may be equally suc- 
cessful at the present time. Sir, it shall not be my 
fault if the game of 1840 shall be played over again 
successfully. I am resolved that the Whig leaders 
here at least shall avow their principles, and explain 
those of their Presidential candidate, or permit the 
most unfavorable presumptions to be deduced from 
their silence. 

After some remarks from Messrs. MANGUM 
and BRADBURY—. 

Mr. FOOTE resumed. I always regret to be 
compelled to differ from my distinguished friend 
from Maine, who has just addressed the Senate, 
but on this occasion 1 find it impossible to avoid 
it. The honorable Senator from North Carolina 
[Mr. Mangum] has done me the honor to notice 
some of the suggestions thrown out by me upon 
the question of adjournment, and has expressed a 
willingness to do battle in behalf of the Presidential 
ticket lately nominated at Philadelphia. This is 
exactly \vhat I expected from the cljivalry of that 
gentleman. I feat", though, that he will find himself 
but slenderly supported by his customary allies 
in this Chamber; and it is still more certain, that in 
venturing upon discussion, he does not pay the 
least respect to the example of discreet silence set 
him in Philadelphia; where were assembled men 
professing free-trade principles, and ultra-protec- 
tionists; men in favor, even yet, of a national 
bank, and men who avow themselves opposed to 
banks and banking in every conceivable shape and 
form; independent treasury men, and men opposed 
to the independent treasury; men opposed to the 
Mexican war, and men in favor of it; no territory 
men, and men whose appetite for territorial acqui- 
sition can only be satisfied by all Mexico, and Cuba 
into the bargain; friends of the Wilmot proviso, 
and enemies to all restrictions upon settlement in 
our territorial domain of any kind whatsoever, save 
what the settlers shall themselves impose. Will 
the Senator from North Carolina have the goodness 
to inform the Senate and the country, with what 
class of his supporters it is that General Taylor 
concurs ? It would be a pity that any of his pres- 
ent friends should be disappointed by his course 
as President, should he chance to be elected. I am 
afraid they might be tempted to denounce him as 
a traitor, as it is well known they did Mr. Tyler 
vinder similar circumstances. If the Senator from 
North Carolina, then, can in advance inform us 
what General Taylor's real opinions are, I feel cer- 
tain he will do much present good and prevent 
future misunderstanding among the friends of 
that distinguished personage. Whether he will 
strengthen the General very greatly for the present 
canvass, is perhaps more doubtful; though I regard 
the experiment as decidedly v^orthy of trial. In 



the absence of a clear and satisfactory exposition 
of the General's political opinions from the Con- 
vention which nominated him, I have been dis-* 
posed to look to other sources for information, and 
the result of my scrutiny I will proceed to lay be- 
fore the Senate. I find that the newspapers sua-" 
taining his pretensions all recognize him as a Whig, 
and, as such, in favor of that whole class of meas- 
ures understood to be embraced in what is known 
as Whig policy. This is certainly contradictory 
to declarations which some of us encountered last 
winter in the social circles of Washington, when 
it was freely and positively asserted by several 
who v.'ere presumed to speak by authority, that 
General Taylor, if elected, would not be inclined 
to disturb the measures of domestic policy so 
successfully put in operation by the present Ad^ 
ministration; but inasmuch as no written assu' 
ranee has been given by him, at least none that 
it has been deemed safe to promulge, of his will- 
ingness to play the part of a Democratic President, 
though taken up by the Whig party, and to be 
elected to the Presidency, if at all, by Whig votes, 
I suppose we shall have to regard him as a genuine 
and unadulterated Whig of the most approved 
Clay and Webster stamp. There is one point, 
however, upon which the newspapers of the Whig 
party seem to diflfer very widely indeed: I allude 
to the Wilmot proviso. For it is a striking fact, 
that whilst the southern Whig editors all set him 
down as a zealous and inflexible pro-slavery man,, 
whose pecuniary interests as a large slaveholde 
will insure his firm and steady opposition to al 
attempts to restrict the extension of domestic slave, 
ry, by Congressional legislation, within its present 
territorial limits; the newspapers of the Whig 
party in that section of the Union where this sya-- 
tern of slavery is not tolerated by law, and where 
the fiercest opposition is exhibited to its further 
diffusion, without a single exception, so far as I 
have been able to ascertain, have presented him to 
their respective readers as a Wilmot proviso man, 
and as such, prepared if elevated to the Executive 
chair of the nation, to withhold his veto from this 
noxious measure — thus permitting it to become one 
of the permanent laws of the Republic. I dislike 
exceedingly to run into detail upon this head; but 
holding it to be quite important that the South 
should understand in time the precise extent of the 
danger to v/hich she stands exposed on this vita! 
point, I shall take the liberty of laying before the 
Senate and the country a few extracts from leading 
Whig journals of extensive circulation in the free 
States of the Union, from which the general course 
of the editors sustaining General Taylor's preten- 
sions in that section of the Confederacy may be 
easily inferred. 

And first, I will read an extract from the " Daily 
Democrat," published at Rochester, New York, 
which is as follows. 

"And here is the precise difference between Cass anil Gen. 
Taylor. It is possilde that General Taylor entertains doubts of 
the expediency of prohibiting slavery in the Territories, and 
th.il he would not originate or recommend such a measure. 

" It may even be, that he shares in the scruples of General 
Cass, as to the grant of power to Congress to legislate for 
them upon this sitbject. But General Taylor tells as that the 
personal opinions of the Executive ouijlitiiot to control the 
action of Congress; nor ought his ohjedions to be interposed 
when questions of constitutional jiower hay e been settled by 
the various depcirtnicnts of GovernBient, and acquiesced in 
by the peaple. 



lis 



" Now, we are entirely willins; to rest the power of Con- 
gress to restrain tile extension of slavery upon its having 
buen settled by all the departments of Government, and 
acquiesced in [<y the people. We can sliow that it has been 
exercised in respect to six Territories by a perpetual inter- 
diction of slavery, and in four oiliers ttie li'i;islative power 
of Congress over slavery has been asserted in the way of 
limitation and re^'ulation ; that every President has, in 
some way, recognized tlia existence of this power ; that it 
has been solemnly declared by the courts of the United 
States, and of nearly, if not quite, all those of every slave 
State. General Taylor, therefore, is bound and pledged not 
to interpose objections, if he entertains any, to arrester de- 
feat the action of Congress." 

Next, a short extract from the " Boston Atlas" 
claims attention. It reads thus: 

" We are not unaware that there are some among us who 
are reluctant to yield to General Taylor their support, even 
tliongh the nominee of the PhilacJelphia Convention. We 
feel assured "that they can be but few. 

" Let them, if they really mean to be ri^ht, atid to act for the 
best, and with clear consciences, consider whether they really 
have any good grounds for their hesitation to support Gen- 
eral Taylor; and above all, let them take into view the fear- 
ful responsiliilily tliey will take upon themselves, if, by their 
opposition, they bring upon the country all the awful con- 
sequences itivolved in the election of Lewis Cass. Let them 
ponder these things well. Let them learn — as thej will 
learn, if they will not be deaf and blind to the truth— that 
General Taylor is a Whig in principle — is in favor of peace 
— opposed to all war — believes slavery to be a curse to the 
country, and desires its e.vtormination — and is opposed to 
the further extension of slave territory." 

Next, I will invite notice to an extract from the 
" Toledo Blade," published in Ohio: 

"General Taylor declares expressly in his tlrst letter, 
written two years since, to James M. Taylor, Esq., then 
editor of the " Cincinnati Signal," that he considers the 
ordinance of 1787 the best code of laws for the government 
of a new territory in existence. Now, what is the prominent 
feature of this ordinance .-■ Is it not, clearly, that no slavery 
shall exist in the Territory for which it was framed? Here is 
tlie doctrine of the Wilmot proviso fully endorsed. If the 
language of General Taylor means anything, it means every- 
thnig, and allhough he inay, troin his peculiar location and 
occupation, as an extensive planter, find it necessary to liold 
slaves himself, it does not follow that he should approve of 
the extension of the evil of slavery into territory now free, 
any more than that Lewis Cass, who has spent liis life in a 
free State — whose sympathies and assuciatioiis have all 
been with free laborers — should not approve of it. General 
Cass, we bi-lieve, is not suspected of entertaining any other 
than the most radical views in favor of an extension of 
slavery. If he does, the platform erected for him by his 
party, and his own letter of acceptance and endorsement, 
greatly belie him. 

"Again, his views upon the qualified use of the veto, re- 
stricting it to matters that are clearly unconstitutional, and 
never to be employed against a decisive Congressional vote, 
are stronger safeguards against the extension of slavery than 
any personal pledges of o|)position. This is power and au- 
thority; it is thcopinion of awise head and good heart, upon 
a subject which, of itself, is the very fountain of all law. 
Would General Taylor veto the Wilmot proviso.' Would 
he dare to say to the assembled Congress of the United 
States, it is unconstitutional to pass such a law.' especially 
after his endorsement of it in his first letter, after declaring 
his opposition to the war, and after expressing a determina- 
tion to avoid the use of the veto, except in the most extreme 
cases .' We do not believe it ! 

'• How is it with the Locofocos,' Their platform tells a 
different story. They oppose the Wilmot proviso, favor the 
use of the veto, approve of the war and its results. Now, 
with such doctrines, what else can be expected than that, if 
Cass should be elected to the Presidency, every wi.-h of the 
most violent pro-slavery men would be immediately gratified.' 
We could expect nothing else, for these are the principles of 
their doctrinal, nominating Convention." 

Next, an article from the Cincinnati Gazette will 
be found worthy of consideration: 

"The nomination of General Taylor by the Whig Na- 
tional Convention is responsive to the authoritative voice of 
the. popular will of the Whigs of the Union, Isgitimately 
expressed in the mode and manner which they themselves 
provided. 



" In April, 1647, the editor of the Cincinnati Signal sent 
to General Taylor an editorial article, in which is the fol- 
lowing: 

" ' The only path of safety for those who may hereafter fill 
the Presidential olhce, is to rest in the discharge of ICxccu- 
tive functions, and let the legislative will of the people find 
utterance and enactments. The American people are about 
to assume the responsibility of framing the institutions of 
the Pacific States. We have no fears for the issue, if the 
arena of the hi!;h debate is the assemblies of the people and 
their representative halls. 7'he citcnvion over the continent 
beyond, lite Rio Grande of the oritinnncc of llSl, is an ohjcct 
too hi<ih and permanent to be baffled by Presidential vetoes.' 

" To the article from which the above extract is made, 
General Taylor responded, in a letter of date May 18, 1847, 
acknowledging his 'high opinion and decided approval of 
the views and sentiments.' 

"Here, it will be noticed, that General T ay ]or decidedly 
approves of giving to the will and acts of Congress ' force 
and effect,' unrestricted by kingly letocs, and that no Execu- 
tive veto shotild prcoent the extension of the ordinance of 1787 
over newly acquired Mexican territory.^' 

The following' extract from the " Pittsburg 
Journal," one of the strongest Wilmot proviso 
papers in the country, wiir be found to the same 
effect: 

" The position of General Taylor'in regard to this all-im- 
portant question, is perfectly satisfactory to the Whigs of the 
North. What we desire in a President is, that he shall not 
interpose to defeat the will of the people as expressed through 
Congress. In the language of Mr. Forward, the Whigs want 
nothing that they cannot obtain through the action of Con- 
gress. " 

" Genera! Taylor's position is one which will make him 
the executor, not the dictator, of the public will. 

" If the Wilmot proviso is adopted hy Congress, General 
Taylor, as President, will not veto it. 

" We regard General Taylor as opposed to the extension 
of slavery, although a southern man. 

" The extract from Mr. Ashmun's address, which we pub- 
lish above, is the ground upon which we go into the support 
of General Taylor. This ground is sure, firm, and safe." 

Let me now call attention to the address which 
has just been issued by the State Central Whig 
Committee of Ohio to the voters of that State. 
The whole address is too long to have read; but 
the succeeding extract will plainly show what are 
the views of the Whigs of Ohio in regard to Geti- 
eral Taylor's principles, and especially as to his 
views on the Wilmot proviso: 

" It would doubtless have been more consonant to the . 
Whigs of Ohio, had a candidate been selected whose resi- 
dence and associations would have naturally inclined hiiti 
to agree with us fully on this subject. His residence and as- 
sociations, however, have not blinded Generiii Taylor to the 
evils of the institution of slavery, and the moral depravity 
of its extension. On the subject of slavery extension, the 
views of General Taylor are freely expressed in his approval 
of the sentiments contained in tlie following extract of an 
editorial article published in the ' Cincinnati Signal' of April, 
1847, and sent by the editor to General Taylor: 

" ' The only path of safety for those who may hereafter fill 
' the Presidential office, is to rest in the discharge of Execu- 
' tive functions, and let the legislative will of the people find 
' utterance and enactment. The American people are about 
' to assume the responsibility of framing the institutions of 
' the Pacific States. We have no fears for the issue, if the 
' arena of the high debate is the assemblies of the people 
' and their representative halls. The extension over the cotv- 
[ tincnt beyond the Rio Grande of the ordinance of 1787, is an 
' object too Id^h and permanent to he bajffled by Presidential 
' vetoes.' 

" To the article from which the above extract is made, 
General Taylor responded, in a letter of date May 18, 1847, 
acknowledging his 'high opinion and decided approval of 
the views and sentiments.' 

" Here, it will be noticed, that General Taylor decidedly 
approves of giving to the will and acts of Congress ' force 
and eftect,' unrestricted by kingly vetoes, and that no Ex- 
ecutive veto should prcoent the extension of the ordinance of 
1787 over newly ac(pdred Mexican territory." 

In addition to these testimonials, I beg leave to 
suggest to gentlemen not already apprised of the 



6 



fact, that a certain manifesto has been recently ad- 
dressed to the Whigs of Massachusetts, by one of 
her leading representatives in Congress, and who 
was also a member of the Philadelphia Convention, 
which, if not expressly contradicted by General 
Taylor during the Presidential canvass, will bind 
him, as an honoi'able man, to throw no obstacles, 
as President of the United States, in the way of 
the Wilmot proviso. I allude to the circular of 
Mr. Ashmun to his constituents, which has evi- 
dently constituted the basis upon which the Whigs 
of Massachusetts have rallied to the support of 
General Taylor. That document reads as fol- 
lows: 

"General Taylor (says In) was not my preference; but I 
believe him to be a true Whig, an honest and capable man, 
opposed to the acquisition of Texas, with sound and con- 
servative principles, opposed to further enlarging the bound- 
aries of our Union; and although he lives in the latitude 
where slavery is tolerated, yet I do not believe that he de- 
sires or approves its extension. His declared sentiments 
are a guarantee that he will never, in the slightest manner, 
interfere with the action of Congress when it shall forbid 
the existence of slavery in our nevvly-acquircd territories. 
Let the representatives of the people and of the States be 
left free to act upon that question, uncontrolled by Executive 
influence and Executive veto, and we are safe. I need not, 
I am confident, give to you any assurance that whenever the 
question, in any form, shall be presented during my ofhcial 
term, the rights of humanity shall find in me an unyieldinir 
advocate. Tlie issue will soon come; it is to be met in the 
Halls of Congress; and then it is to be decided, in all proba- 
bihty, during the continuance of Mr. Polk's administration. 
Let the people of the free Slates looiv to their representa- 
tives I" 

Such is the condition of things in New England 
and the free States generally, in regard to General 
Taylor's attitude upon the Wilmot proviso. I do 
rot charge him in direct terms with being at heart 
favorable to the Wilmot proviso; but I do insist, 
and with the utmost confidence, too, that if elected 
without further explanation, his supporters among 
the " conscience Whigs," as they are called, would 
have great right to complain of any attempt on 
his part, as President, to defeat their favorite meas- 
ure, by the interposition of the Executive veto. 
And now, sir, I again appeal to the friends of Gen- 
eral Taylor in this body for some assurance as to 
the conduct of their Presidential candidate on this 
subject, should he chance to be elected, as they seem 
now so confidently to anticipate. Our candidate has 
come out plainly and unequivocally, and magnani- 
mously risked his election upon the soundness of 
his views. Should he be chosen President, no fas- 
tidious delicacy would restrain him in the exercise 
of the veto power upon all measures deemed by him 
unconstitutional, and he has declared his opinion 
that the Wilmot proviso is unconstitutional, in 
phraseology too explicit to be misunderstood by 
the dullest intellect in the Republic. But if Gen- 
eral Taylor's position as a Presidential candidate 
is so objectionable for the reasons now stated, how 
much more objectionable does he become when 
regarded as associated with Alillard Fillmore, of 
NewYork,upon the Whig ticket.' Mr. Fillmore has 
been known all his life — and no man, here or else- 
where, will dare deny it — to have been a thorough- 
going Whig of the true Boston stamp. He' is 
the reputed author of the tariff of 1842, and has 
never wavered in the support of ultra Whig prin- 
ciples. I am not authorized to charge him with 
being an Abolitionist; but no one cari^ safely con- 
tradict the assertion, that whilst a member of the 
House of P^epresentatives in Congress, he gave 



more than one vote which strongly smacked of 
abolition. His general course as a politician is 
well known to the country; but as all are not 
familiar with the incidents which have marked 
his public life for severaUyears past, I deem it pru- 
dent to read on this occasioii an extract from a 
letter which I have just received from an accom- 
plished and honorable friend of mine in the State 
of New York, wiiose means of obtaining correct 
information on this subject are such as few persons 
living possess, and whose reputation for veracity 
and fairness authorize me to avouch, as I solemnly 
do, the perfect accuracy of his whole statement: 
Albany, June 19, 1848. 

My dear Sir: I am happy to re|)ly to your favor of the 
12lh instant, in the terms which I have replied to other simi- 
lar applications, to give you any information respecting Mr. 
Fillmore within my reach. 

You are not mistaken in the fact that Fillmore is a Wil- 
mot provisoist. He is so, out and out, as all know who have 
any knowledge of his opinions and associations. Nobody 
here doubts his position in this respect. He left Congress 
before the question came up in that body, and in our own 
State he has not been called upon for his views in this re- 
spect, because his political friends, the Whigs, who were 
rampant proviso men, never imagined that his provisoism 
was a matter to be questioned by anybody. It certainly never 
lias been here. He was nominated for Comptroller, the most 
imi)!)rtant and responsible State office in the State, by the 
Whig Slate Convention, last October, with the knowledge 
that his views were in perfect coincidence with those of the 
Convention, and with the Whig party of the State. 

You may recollect that the Democratic State Convention 
held at the close, of la^t September, laid on the table and re- 
fused to adopt the Wilmot yiromso ottered by a prominent 
" Barnburner," and, that upon that issue, the faction known 
by that name, led off by Preston King, George Rathhun, J. 
Van Buren, &c., &,c., denounced, opposed, and, with the 
Whigs, voted against the Democratic tickets. Tlie Whig 
State Convention, held the next week, adopted the identical 
resolution refused by the Democratic Convention, as fol- 
lows : 

" Resolved, That while the Whig freemen of New York, 
represented in this ConvenUon, will faithfully adhere to all 
the compiomises of the Constitution, and zealously main- 
tain all the reserved rights of the States, they declare, since 
the crisis has arrived when the question must be met, their 
uncompromising hostility to the extension of slavery into 
territory now free, or which may he hereafter acquired by 
any action of the Government of our Union." 

This Whig Convention nominated Fillmore for Comp- 
troller. The address adopted by the Convention avowed the 
doctrines of the resolution, and presented them as the great 
and essential issue of the campaign. It had these passages : 
" The Union as it is," "Aut no more territory is our watch- 
word," " unless it be free." " The voice o'f New York is 
powerful in the Union, and we have striven faithfully (in 
Fillmore & Co.) to present good sound sense men to person- 
ate our principles." 

The address of the New York Whig Central State Com- 
mittee, to the Whigs of the State, was as follows, (October 
25,) in behalf of Fiilmore k. Co.: 

"The Whigs of the State have long seen and known that 
thestooe poicer was the governing power of this Union. They 
have seen and felt that that power was exerted in hosUllty 
to the free men and free labor of the North ; they have seeii 
that power make, and now see it making, most extraordi- 
nary efforts to extend its dominion and increase ife strength ; 
they have seen northern politicians and northern statesmen 
truckling, bending, yielding to that power for the sake of 
participating in its patronage, feeding upon the loaves and 
fishes which it had to bestow, and enjoying the spoils with 
which usurpers and tyrants in all ages reward the instru- 
ments they use to accomplish their ends. This yon have 
seen, and deplored its consequences, and you have labored, 
but hitherto in vain, to avert them. But now a more glori- 
ous prospect opens to your view. You have before you a 
renewed and striking instance of that great and cheering 
truth, that the Almighty, in his infinite wisdom, has provided 
and orda'ined that the indulgence of an evil and vicious 
course, whether in moral or political action, carries vi'ith it 
not only its own punishment, but also its own corrective. 
Elated with its unexampled success, the slave ponder 
has become so exactive, imperious, and tyrannical, that the 



' endurance' of its nortlirrn ' ally' has ce:ised to be a virtue, 
aiid now, lor the first time in the history of our Government, 
our eyes behold, anil our ears are greeted with tlie glad tidings, 
Uiat a large and overwhelming majority of the free spirits of 
tiie North are determined, at once and forever, to put limits 
10 tire bounds of slavery within our glorious Union, and to 
say to it, ' tbou ha<t gone thus far, but thou slialt no further 
go.' Our opponents (the Democrats) at Syracuse, with a 
Bacrilegious contempt of God's holy Sabbath, well befitting 
tlie occasion and the deed, laid a resolution against the ex- 
tension of slavery on the table,upon the strange and anoma- 
lous ground that the question of setting bounds to slavery 
was a fireband tlirown into a convention nf frscmen. On 
the following week, another convention of freemen rescued 
this resolution from the contempt with which its predecessor 
liad treated it, by DXiXt.MorsLY adopting it. And now we 
appeal to the free spirits of the North — the freemen of New 
York — to go to the polls with that power and energy which 
the spirit of true freedom never fails to inspire, and at the 
going down of the sun oa the night of the second of Novem- 
ber, let the Empire State, through her ballot-bo.ves, proclaim, 
in tones of thunder, in the language of the immortal JetTer- 
son, 'all men are by nature free and equal;' and let the 
lightning of Heaven, before the sun sets on the following 
day,scauer the glad tidings throughout the lengih and breadth 
of oui country, that hereafter and forever New York will not 
consent to the extension of the hounds of slavery." 

(Signed by all the Whig State Committees, then and now 
the patriotic, active, and intimate political associates and 
supporters of Mr. Fillmore.) 

The "Evening Journal"' is the organ of the Whig party 
and of Mr. Fillmore, at Albany. It is the leading Whig paper 
in the State. From the moment of Fillmore's nomination 
last October to the close of the canvass, it was filled with 
proviso- articles and appeals. The contest seemed in that 
quarter, as in the State address, to have no other point or 
issue. And every day the support of the proviso was urged 
as the great rallying point of the Whig cause and their can- 
didates, and the Democrats and their candidates were as- 
sailed in the fiercest manner as its enemies. I could send 
you innumerable extracts, showing that the burden of the 
Whig labors of Fillmore & Co. was the proviso. A few will 
sutiice. 

In our State now, the same men are engaged in the sup- 
port of T.iylor and Fillmore ; and upon the same grounds 
tlie same papers support him. The Evening Journal of this 
aiteriioon says: 

" We will adhere unflinchingly to every sentiment we 
liave uttered against the extension of slavery, and in favor of 
preserving the freedom of the soil obtained from Mexico. In 
supporting General Taylor, we are rendering to the cause 
the best service in our power. General Cass, a thorough 
dough-face, has sacrificed freedom for a Presidential nomi- 
nation. He stands pledged to veto a free soil bill should 
Congress send such a bill to him. General Taylor, on the 
other hand, though a slavery man as it exists, is opposed to ex- 
tending the ecil, and u-ill sign any bill that Congress shall pass 
on the subject." 

The battle in New York will be a fierce one. We shall 
encounter the Whigs and the leading" Barnburners," led by 
King, J. Van Biiren, and others, and no doubt with the ap- 
proval of the senior Mr. Van Buren. And the more rabid 
of the proviso school and pretended Democrats will nomi- 
nate their fonrfi'/afcs for President and Vice President either 
at their convention on the 22d, or at an adjourned conven- 
tion in -'Vugust, intended to embrace a wider range of dele- 
gales from other States. 

It may be counted, we think, that tlie great body of the 
Democracy of the State will support the national Demo- 
cratic nominations ; that many VVIiigs will refuse to support 
General Taylor; and that out of the State, if not in it, we 
sliall gain in one form all we lose in the other. At all events, 
you may rely upon our best efforts to sustain the Democratic 
cause and its candidates. 

One thing is certain, that if the South shall fail to sup- 
port Cass and Butler, with open and manly avowal of prin- 
ciples, on which the South can stand, and shall prefer Tay- 
lor and Fillmore from the party which has proclaimed the 
proviso, and denounced the southern or " slave power" in 
every form of epitiiet and hostility, they can never hope 
afterwards to recover a fair and just position in the Union. 
With great respect, your obedient servant. 

Extracts referred, to in the preceding Letter. 

[From the Evening Journal, October 11, 1847.] 

" Our opponents will be active ; they have everything at 

stake; their hope of success in the Presidential contest rests 

upon the result now. They have pressed into this election 



the issue (the proviso) upon which that contest will hang. 
If. by the election of llungorford &. Co., (the candidate op- 
posed to Fillmore,) the Wilinot proviso is condemned, the 
enemies of that principle will be emboldened, and they will 
have a right to be. If the extension of human bondage is 
sanctioned by the freemen of the Empire State, the advo- 
cates of sl.ivery will have a right to deem the institution in 
accordance with the views of the North. Such a result must 
be avoided. New York must not endorse the inhuman 
principle so boldly broached by the Administration. It 
would be in the highest degree disgraceful ; but this disgrace 
can only be avoided by ti|e repudiation of the men who are 
laboring to bring it about, and the election of those (Fillmore 
St Co.) u'Ao are pledged to the IVilmot pi-oviso." 
[From the same, October 1.3.] 
" The pensioned emissaries of slavery in this State have 
made a distinct issue. By voting down an endorsement of 
the Wilinot proviso, they superadded to every other issue 
that issue, m:)re importantthanallothers,sl3.very or freedom. 
It is to be seen in whose favor the verdict of the ballot-bos 
will be rendered." 

[From the same, October 20.] 
" Slavery or'Freedom. — The approaching election will 
decide the question whether the electors of New York are 
in favor of freedom or slavery. The order has gone out from 
Washington, and been proclaimed here by the emissaries of 
the General Government, that the Empire State must suc- 
cumb to the slave power. For the first time in our political 
history, the State convention of a great party (the Demo- 
cratic party) has ignobly spurned a resolution protesting 
against cursing free soil with human slavery. The issue is 
distinctly raised— the appeal is boldly made to the ballot- 
box. Ei'cry vote deposited uill he a declaration for or against 
the principle embodied i7i the Wilinot proviso. The election 
of the nominees of a convention born of bribery and fraud, 
would be hailed as a triumph of slavery ; their defeat would 
inspire a well-founded hope of the ultimate triumph of the 
great principle for which every true man is contending." 

[From the same, October 27.] 
" O.N ! TO VICTORY ! — The busy note of preparation comes 
upon us from all quarters. The ever true and faithful work- 
ingmen of the Whig party are ready and eager for tiiis con- 
test. The people appreciate the momentous issue involved 
in this contest. They know that questions of infinitely 
greater importance than the success of any party are at 
stake. The result of the contest will decide whether slavery 
or freedom has the popular verdict. This was made an is- 
sue by order of the General Government. The freemen's 
resolution (the proviso) was spurned by a fraudulently con- 
stituted majority at S.yracuse. They even refused it the 
poor formality of a direct vote. They ignoniiniously laid it 
upon the table. But the people, while they must despise its 
author, thank him for the issue ; the resolution contemptu- 
ously smothered will be rescued from dishonor. It was 
trampled upon by a subservient majority, but it will be mag- 
nified through the ballot-boxes. That which was condemned 
by the ' dough-faces,' will be exalted by the people." 

[From the same, October 28.] 
" Strike for freedom ! The emissaries of the (Seneral 
Government smothered the white man's resolution, (the 
proviso.) Let the traitors be remembered at the ballot- 
boxes. Let the potent voice of New York be heard in de- 
nunciation of the recreants who would tarnish her fair fame- 
by a compulsory endorsement of slavery. Strike for free- 
dom !" 

[From the same, November 1.] 

"Slavery overshadowing freedom. — The territory 
demanded of Mexico by Mr. Trist as a condition of peace, 
is large enough to form five States as large as New York. 
With the boundaries of slavery thus enlarged, what has the 
North to expect but a perpetuation of the dominion of sla- 
very?" 

[From the same — same date.] 

" Slaves are claimed and held as property; they are not 
recognized as men, or allowed to enjoy any ot^ the attributes 
or rights of mankind. But, while at the North property 
qualifications for voting have been repudiated, the South 
votes for its slaves. In all the southern States five slaves 
give two votes. This monstrous inequality has been toler- 
ated as one of the compromises of the Constitution ; but let 
us not extend this odious principle — let us not add new 
slave teTritory, that slavery may increase its political power." 
[ Of course Fillmore and company were recognized 
everywhere as entertaining these sentiments, and as the 
champions and standard-bearers of the party avowing and 



8 



entertaining them. Such was the character of all the pro- 
ceedings of all their county conventions and meetings.] 
[Resolutions unanimously adopted at the Whig general 
meeting in the city of New York approving the nomina- 
tion of Fillmore and company.] 

" Resolved, Thnl we earnestly deprecate, and will resist 
to the utmost, the extension of human slavery under our 
laws and our flas, into any territory previously free from 
tliat scourge. We deny the constitutional right to extend 
and establish it, and we call on all who love liberty, what- 
ever their name or party, to unite with us in averting the 
evil and reproach of propagating bondage from this boasted 
land of freedom. 

" Resolved, That In Millard Fillmore and * * * on 
the Whig State ticket, we have candidates of more integ- 
rity, undoubted capacity, unsullied character, and unwaver- 
ing Whig principles, whom we are proud to eulogize and 
point to as champions of our cause, and we will give them 
tiiat support which they eminently deserve, and which our 
country's good emphatically requires at our hands." 

Such, then, are the political chai-acteristics of 
the gentleman selected by the Whig Convention 
in Philadelphia, to be voted for in connection with 
General Taylor; such are the principles of that 
personage who, in the event of General, Taylor's 
death before the expiration of his official term, 
would have charge of the Executive department of 
the Government at this critical period in our his- 
tory. I now solemnly call upon the friends of this 
ill-omened ticket to deny one single fact which I 
have stated in regard to Mr. Fillmore, or to con- 
fess that they are striving for the election of a man 
to the Vice Presidency of the Union, and opening 
the way, in the event named, to the Presidency 
itself, of a person who, in many respects, is more 
objectionable as a politician than any individual 
who has ever heretofore been able to obtain a 
nomination at the hands even of a Whig Conven- 
tion, since the system of nominettion was first 
adopted. 

After some observations from Mr. MANGUM — 
Mr. FOOTE resumed. I am certainly quite 
gratified at finding that the honorable Senator from 
North Carolina concurs with me touching the ap- 
propriateness of the present occasion for the discus- 
sion which is now in progress. He seems to be 
quite astonished, though, that anyone should find I 
it at all difficult to understand the present princi- [ 
pies of the Whig party. Whiggery, says he, is ' 
the sun in Heaven, irradiating and refreshing with ! 
its heat all surrounding nature. Well, sir, I have \ 
seen it somewhere mentioned, that in ancient 
times' there was once a theory afloat which as- 
serted the existence of two distinct species of stars 
in the firmament — one class of which emitted rays 
of light, whilst the others emitted rays of dark- 
ness. I think all who have witnessed this debate 
will acknowledge that if Whiggery be really a sun, 
it is not such a sun as supplies any large quantum 
of illumination, or that, like the veritable Phoebus, 
its brightness is too intense to allow the substance 
of which it is composed to be ascertained by the 
casual beholder — being, perchance, as the poet ex- 
presses it, "dark from excess of light." If the 
Senator from North Carolina will deign to periTiit 
a little of the light in which that sun of Whiggery 
of which he has spoken must abound, to fall upon 
certain opake spots which now stand for Whig prin- 
ciples, I am sure that he would confer a great favor 
upon many, and do not a little service to the coun- 
try. Will the Senator from North Carolina be 
kind enough to tell us whether the Whig party, if 
they get into power, will again struggle to establish 
a national bank .' 



Mr. MANGUM. I will answer the Senator, 
but I will not now interrupt him. 

Mr. FOOTE. If the Senator shall answer sat- 
isfactorily, he will be more successful than any of 
his party have been lately. I see the Senator from 
Delaware [Mr. Clayton] in his place, and I am 
reminded of a certain published letter of his, issued 
in the autumn of 1846, in which he proclaimed 
the existence of the old party issues. Does he 
adhere to what he then declared? 

Mr. CLAYTON. The letter to which the 
Senator refers was in relation to a protective tariff. 
That was the only subject embraced in it. 

Mr. FOOTE. I think the Senator is mistaken; 
but it matters not; the Senator from Delaware then 
insisted upon the restoration of the tariff of 1843, 
and I understand him yet to do so; and doubtless 
he expects General Taylor to aid in its restoration. 
Well, sir, if General Taylor will explicitly ac- 
knowledge that he is in favor of the tariff 1842, I 
can assure his friends that his supporters in the 
South will soon dwindle to a corporal's guard. But 
let me ask the Senator from North Carolina, who 
has undertaken to give us information in regard to 
General Taylor's politics, to tell us whether he is 
in favor of the independent treasury. What are 
his views in relation to the Mexican war .' Did 
he, or does he, approve or disapprove the conduct 
of his own Government in prosecuting that war.' 
Was he really, as Mr. Ashmun asserts, opposed 
to the annexation of Texas } Was he opposed to 
our receiving territorial indemnity from Mexico .' 
Would he, if President, veto the Wilmot proviso 
or not.' 

The Senator frotri North Carolina has announced 
to us that he has determined to support General 
Taylor, because he knows him to be a Whig, and 
recognizes him to be a well-informed politician. 
This is really surprising. General Taylor himself 
acknowledges his utter ignorance of politics, be- 
wails his want of mature ideas on the subject, and 
declares that he has paid no attention to questions 
of party politics for forty years, and yet he is now 
lauded for his vast political knowledge and high 
competency as a statesman. It would be gratify- 
ing to many to be able to find out the school at 
which he has succeeded in acquiring proficiency 
in statesmanship so rapidly. No other such in- 
stance of success in the accumulation of knowledge 
has heretofore occurred in the history of the world: 
and I can hardly believe that another such instance 
will occur in all future time. Since he is really so 
well-informed at present in politics, it is still more 
wonderful that he keeps his learning so much to 
himself. Surely he should not hide his light under 
a bushel. I have heard it said, that there was this 
striking difference between intellectual acquisitions 
and acquisitions of every other kind: man is so 
constituted, that if he obtain a new idea, he feels 
actually unhappy until an opportunity is afforded 
to him of communicating it to others. General 
Taylor's case is clearly an exception to the general 
rule; for he is as absolutely silent now upon all 
political topics as he was when confessedly in a 
state of profound ignorance. 

It has pleased the Senator from North Carolina 
to assail the standard-bearer of the Democratic 
party, our admired candidate for Presidential 
honors-, in a style and manner far more unkind than 
I had anticipated; and yet I cannot perceive that 



9 



he has done him the least injury. The fact is, the 
character and qualifications of our candidate are 
such as to make it impossible for his adversaries 
to weaken him by assailment, however ingenious 
or malignant. The wiiole American people know 
him to be a man of the highest abilities, of large 
attainments in science, thoroughly accomplished 
in ail things appertaining to the management of 
public affairs, sober, industrious, persevering, 
frank, independent, wise in counsel, fearless in 
action, of unblemished reputation in private life, 
and possessed of every quality which can confer 
dignity or secure friendship. His history as a 
public man is fa.miliar to the whole world. I shall 
not now dwell upon it in detail. It is entirely un- 
necessary. But I trust I may be pardoned for 
saying thus much: for more than six months 
past, I have known him familiarly; I have been a 
close observer of his conduct in this body, and 
have listened to his sage counsels in privacy; and 
it has ever seemed to me, that it would have been 
impossible for any man whom I have known, or 
of whom I have read, to discharge all the duties of 
a wise and patriotic Senator, with more complete 
success than I have seen them performed by him. 
During his connection with the management of 
public affairs, no man has had to encounter more 
difficulties, or to meet more new and perilous 
questions than he has; and yet no one can justly 
charge him with having on any occasion recoiled 
from responsibility, or with having in the least 
degree wearied with continued well doing. Whilst 
among us in this body, he was oftentimes thrown 
into collision with the ablest debaters and most 
skillful tacticians that the Whig party could sup- 
ply; very peculiar • efforts have been oftentimes 
made, as the result of special arrangement and 
combination, to bear him down or to embarrass 
him; but gentlemen will permit me to aver, that I 
remember no conflict in which he was worsted by 
his antagonists, or in which he failed to acquire 
new honor from the encounter. His great simpli- 
city and manliness of character enabled us always 
to ascertain his true attitude upon every public 
question, when most others were holding them- 
selves in reserve; and he is the last man in the 
nation who could seek official advancement by 
concealing his opinions — giving conflicting assu- 
rances to adverse factions — or who could permit 
himself to be shuffled into high station by mere 
dexterity and chicane. He is before the country, 
avowing openly the well-known creed of his party; 
to all the resolutions of our National Convention 
he has publicly and cordially subscribed; and upon 
most of the principles involved therein he has 
heretofore been compelled to act in the course of 
his career as a public man. Weil might he say, 
as he did say lately, in his letter accepting the nomi- 
nation to the Presidency: 

" This letter, gentlemen, closes my profession of political 
faitli. Receiving my flr^l appointment from that pure pa- 
triot, an9 great expounder of American Democracy, Mr. 
Jefferson, more than forty years ajo, the intervening period 
of my life has been almost wholly passed in the service of 
my country, and has been marked by many vicissitudes, and 
been attended with many trying circumstances both in peace 
and war. If my conduct in these situations, and the opin- 
ions I have been called upon to form and express from time 
to time, upon all the great party topics of the day, do not I 
furnish a clear exposition of my views respecting tliem, and j 
at tlie same time a sufficient pledge of my faithful adhe- 
rence to their practical application, wherever and whenever ' 



I may be required to act, anything further I might now say, 
would be mere delusion, unworthy of my-sclf, and justly 
otiensive to the great party in whose name you are now 
acting." 

Such is our candidate for the Presidency, and 
such his opinions: who does not perceive the injus- 
tice attempted to be done him on this occasion, by 
charging him with attempting to conceal his prin- 
ciples the other day at Cleveland, when he was 
rudely and presumptuously catechised in a vast 
crowd, amidst a scene of tumult and confusion, 
which, had he attempted to speak at length, would 
have subjected him to every sort of misinterpre- 
tation and consequent misrepresentation .' When 
the candidate of the Whig party shall have avowed 
a single principle clearly and unequivocally, his 
advocates here may have some little ground to 
complain of General Cass's conduct at Cleveland; 
but until that distant day — a day which I fear is 
never to be realized — I would admonish them to 
be as silent as the grave itself upon this subject. 

I believe I may venture to assure gentlemen also, 
that there is not much danger of our candidate for 
the Presidency flooding the country with election- 
eering letters during the canvass, as General Tay- 
lor has done; and I will go further, and engage 
that not a single letter will ever be published over 
his signature of which he will not be the sole^u- 
thor; and whose style shall not plainly bespeak its 
origin. But how is it, on the subject of letters, 
with General Taylor? Why, the number of his 
epistles is legion; and such wondrous variety do 
they exhibit, both in phraseology and substance, 
as to have filled his friends with regret, and to 
have called forth commiseration even from his 
enemies. Some of these famous letters are short, 
concise, and nervous; others are long, verbose, 
and meaningless; others glitter with all the mere- 
tricious ornaments of a false rhetoric; whilst others 
again are full of false grammar, confused ideas, 
involved sentences, and the most rude and unpol- 
ished nonsense. (i)ne or two of these letters are 
supposed to have been written in this city and 
forwarded to him for his signature at his place of 
residence in the far southwest; and these bear in- 
dubitable tokens of having been concocted by old 
stagers in politics, for the purpose of deceiving and 
deluding. I venture to assert that General Taylor 
cannot by possibility be the author of all these 
letters; and I defy any of his friends here to rise 
and assert that they do so believe. 

Mr. President, I feel that I should poorly per- 
form my duty on this occasion were I to omit to 
allude to a personage whose name cannot be men- 
tioned anywhere without awakening sentiments 
of respect and admiration, and who, among all 
true Whigs, has been for a long time regarded as 
the very personification and embodiment of their 
principles as a party. Henry Clay ! Henry Clay ! ! 
"Clanim et vcnerabile nomenH" So spoke of him 
lately in our hearing an eloquent Senator, who is 
no longer one of our body — the justice of whose 
commendation I felt bound. to admit in full Senate. 
Where is Henry Clay? In retirement? How? 
By the cruel ostracism of an ungrateful party — a 
party first organized by him upon its true platform; 
a party which learned all its principles from his 
eloquent lips; sustained by him, defended by him, 
sometimes led to victory by him. when hope seemed 
forever to have abandoYied the Whig standard, and 



10 



when all other voices but his had grown silent from 
uttei despair. His high abilities, his lieroic fear- 
lessness, his noble energy of character, his unsur- 
passed eloquence, his profound devotion to the 
Whig cause, his thorough knowledge of men and 
parties, his masterly dexterity as a party tac- 
tician, his deep and firm hold upon popular feel- 
ing — all, all have been forgotten, overlooked, dis- 
regarded, almost mocked at and despised; and, 
oh! shame upon such heartlessness! such cruel 
and insulting disregard of his sensibilities ! a man 
has been nominated in preference to him, who pro- 
fesses utter ignorance of Whig principles — who 
disdains to be recognized as the exponent of the 
Whig creed, who has not even voted at an election 
in forty years; — and he, too, a military chieftain! 
yes, a military chieftain !! — though Mr. Clay had, 
more than twenty years ago, denounced the elec- 
tion of a mere military chieftain to the Presidential 
oifice as worse than war, pestilence, and famine com- 
bined!! Sir, such an instance of flagrant injustice 
has never before been perpetrated by party .managers 
in any age of the world. The great leader of the 
Whig hosts, after being persuaded to allow his name 
to be used in the Philadelphia Convention, in his 
old age, when even party enmity had almost soft- 
ened into friendship, and respect, and veneration, 
ha^ been cast out, reprobated, trampled under foot, 
massacred by professing but false friends, and, 
I may almost say, buried, without the decencies of 
a public funeral! Since the days of Julius Cresar, 
nothing has occurred equal to this enormous out- 
rage! Surely it was not necessary that this man, 
too, should die by the violence of his own friends! 
surely it was not necessary to butcher him in a 
manner so cruel, so barbarous. If the time had 
come to make a victim of such a man, surely he 
ruight at least (o have been " carved as a dish fit 
for the gods," not " hewn as a carcass fit for 
hounds." " But yesterday, the word of this man 
nn'ght (with his own party) have stood against the 
world; now lies he there, and none so poor as do 
him reverence." But, sir, I prophesy, that true 
men will yet arise to avenge his martyrdom, and 
that those who have been heard exulting over fallen 
greatness will yet be made to feel the punishment 
which their perfidy deserves. I warn them to 
prepare their ears for the indignant denunciations 
of a hero in despair, whose mighty 
" Spirit ranging for revenge, 
Witli Ate liy liisside, come liotfrom hell, 
Shall, ill Whig confines, with a monarch's voice 
Cry Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war — 
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth 
With carrion men groaning for burial." 



Mr. JOHNSON made a speech of some length, 
after which — 

Mr. FOOTE resumed. It must be obvious to 
all that the Senator from Maryland has failed 
most egregiously in his attempt to establish his 
charge of there having been two editions of the life 
of Cass published in this city, under Democratic 
direction, one for circulation in the North, and the 
other in the South; difl^ering from each other in 
regard to the Wilmot Proviso. The truth is — as 
I am told can be easily proved, if necessary — 
that there never have been two editions on hand 
at the Globe oflice at the same time; and that, of 
all the editions published, as large a number were 
sent to one section of the Union as to the other. 



In addition, I will remark that there is really no 
repugnance, or very material diflerence of any 
kind, between the two editions which have been 
subjected to criticism here, so far as the Wilmot 
proviso is concerned. One of these editions runs 
somewhat more into detail on this subject than 
the other, which it was deemed expedient to en- 
liven and adorn with the letter of General Jack- 
son, and General Cass's views in regard to the 
revolutionary movements in France — a subject 
which he is well known to have discussed at a 
public meeting in this city some time after the 
first edition of his life had issued from the press. 
Besides, sir, this earnestly-urged charge becomes 
perfectly ridiculous when we reflect upon the fact 
that General Cass's letter to Mr. Nicholson, 
plainly declaring his hostility to the Wilmot pro- 
viso, has been published, in pamphlet form, by 
thousands upon thousands, and distributed all 
over the Republic, and has been republished in 
every leading Democratic and Whig newspaper 
on the continent; so that it cannot be possible that 
any intelligent man anywhere can be ignorant of 
his true attitude. Why, sir, I have seen some 
ten or a dozen different lives of General Taylor, 
and some of them ridiculous enough, God knows; 
but who ever tliought of holding him or the Whig 
party responsible for any of them? I will not 
argue this matter gravely; I scorn to do so; it is 
unworthy of this body and the respectable Sena- 
tors who introduced it to our notice. 

The Senator from North Carolina [Mr. Man- 
gum] has closed his elaborate defence of General 
Taylor; an address characterized by ability, 
learning, and a peculiar astuteness of mind. But 
all will admit, who have listened to it, that he has 
given no new information to the Senate and the 
country relative to General Taylor's political 
opinions. This is just as I had anticipated, and 
had beforehand ventured to predict. Surely, if 
any one knows anything positively on this sub- 
ject, the Senator from North Carolina cannot re- 
main in ignorance. He is one of the most promi- 
nent leaders of the Whig party; and though it be 
true, as he says, that he is but newly initiated in the 
Eleusinian mysteries of Taylorism; yet suificient 
time having elapsed since General Taylor's nomi- 
nation to allow the Senator from North Carolina 
to give in his adhesion to him, I do not see why 
we might not reasonably demand from him one or 
two substantial political reasons at least for sup- 
porting him as a Presidential candidate. If not ori- 
ginally as much in the confidence of his chosen 
candidate as some others, I trust that he at least 
occupies such an attitude at present as will enable 
him to learn all that it is important for him to find 
out concerning the principles of his candidate, to 
enable him to do efficient service in his support. 

Mr. President, I regret that my friend, the Sen- 
ator from North Carolina, who so decidedly de- 
clines a regular vindication of the Whig ticket, 
should have put himself to the trouble of assailing 
that of the Democratic party. More especially do 
1 regret that he should have gone out of his way 
to denounce General Cass's alleged change of opin- 
ion upon the Wilmot proviso. I have lierelofore 
explained the conduct of General Cass in regard to 
this imputed change of opinion, and will not trouble 
the Senate further on the subject at this time. But 
before my friend from North Carolina so bolster- 



11 



ously complains of General Cass's supposed incon- 
sistency, and charges it so fiercely to be a deeply 
disreputable thing for a statesman of years and ex- 
perience to undergo and confess the least alteration 
of judgment upon a grave public question, I am 
of opinion that it would be at least discreet in him 
to recollect, that perchance he is not himself now the 
advocate here of all the principles which he once 
zealously maintained. I shall not go at large and 
minutely into the history of that worthy Senator, 
for the purpose of pointing out liis inconsistencies; 
but there is one remarkable change of opinion, 
made manifest by the Senator for the first time, 
I believe, in the progress of this debate, which is 
altogether so glaring and material that he will ex- 
cuse me for making specific mention of it. It will 
be recollected, that whilst the Senator from North 
Carolina wixs addressing the Senate, I propounded 
several interrogatories to him, which he undertook 
to answer. Among them were the following: 
What were General Taylor's views touching the 
origin of the Mexican war? Did he believe it to 
have arisen by the act of Mexico, or by the act 
of the United States? Was Mexico in the right 
in regard to the commencement of the war, and 
our country in the wrong? Or was Mexico in 
the wrong, and our country in the right? The 
honorable Senator avowed that he could not an- 
swer for General Taylor, but had no hesitation 
in answering for himself; and, in doing so, de- 
clared, ihat it was his deliberate conviction that 
the war had been commenced by the President of 
the United States, and unjustly and unnecessarily 
, commenced by him. I shall not stop now to de- 
fend the President and our own country from the 
present animadversions of the Senator from North 
\ Carolina. I prefer reminding the Senator of what 

he himself said in this b.ody, on a very noted occa- 
sion. When, sir, on the 19th day of May, 1846, 
a bill was received from the House of Representa- 
tives, entitled "An act providing for the prosecu- 
tion of the existing war between the United States 
and the Republic of Mexico," and was undergoing 
consideration in this Chamber, the honorable Sen- 
ator from North Carolina addressed the Senate at 
some length , and used , in the progress of his speech , 
the following language: 

■ " He had no disposition to embarrass tlie passage of the 
bill. He should, however, greatly hesitate to vole for it in 
its present shape, inasmuch as it was equivalent to a dec- 
laration of war; bul he was prepared atonce to vote supplies 
to any amount, whether of men or money. All he asked 
was, that the political question as to the actual existence of a 
war might be separated from the vote of supplies. If the 
friends of the Administration wanted their fifty thousand 
men and their ten millions of dollars, they could have looth 
in half an hour, if they would not embarrass the bill by 
connectingsit with the other questions." * * " "They 
were not willing to assume the fact, without evidence, that 
a state of war between the United States and Mexico did 
actually exist. Suppose that the troops which crossed the l^ia 
Grande [Mexican troops, of course] had acted without the 
ctuthoritji of their Government, fas now, Mr. President, we 
know they did not,] and that the collision which had un- 
happily taken place wasounng to their own unauthorized act : 
was any Senator prepared to say, that according to the doc- 
trines of national law, this constituted a state of war between 
the two nations.' The act of these military officers might j'et 
be disavowed," &c. * * * "If we were actually at war, 
then he was under the impression that our forces ouglit to 
cross the river, and that we should not stop until we had 
dictated peace at the capital of the Mexican empire." 

Well, Mr. President, we have since ascertained, 
and the Senator will not deny the fact, that all 



which was done by the Mexican officers and 
soldiers referred to, so far from being disavowed 
by their Government, was done by express ordera 
of that Government, and has been repeatedly sanc- 
tioned and justified in the most solemn and formal 
manner. We now know that a state of war did 
actually exist on the 12th day of May, 1846, not 
by the unauthorized act of Mexican officers and 
soldiers, but under the express authority of the 
Mexican Government; and the President ascer- 
taining these to be the actual facts of the case, did, 
in accordance with the recommendation of the 
Senator from North Carolina, use all the men and 
money placed in his hands, in the vigorous prosecu- 
tion of the war, and has actually " dictated peace 
at the capital of the Mexican empire." And now 
what is the conduct of the Senator from North 
Carolina? Why, he turns short round upon the 
President, asserts that he brought it on, and not 
the Mexican Government at all, and denounces 
him in the harshest manner for what he has thought 
it incumbent upon him to do in vindication of the 
national honor. If the Senator from North Caro- 
lina will specify one such act of inconsistency in 
the whole history of General Cass as a statesman, 
I shall be willing to admit that the censures which 
he has bestowed upon him are not wholly unde- 
served. 



Mr. Clavton having occupied the attention of 
the Senate for several hours, Mr. FOOTE thus 
responded to him: 

Mr. President: I have heard it said, that it is 
an established rule among professed rhetoricians, 
both ancientand modern, that the peroration should 
always be the most brilliant and imposing part of 
a speech. It will be readily acknowledged by 
those who have listened to the honorable Sen- 
ator from Delaware, that the conclusion of that 
very magnificent harangue which has riveted our 
attention for the last two hours, or more, is not 
altogether a very striking exemplification of the 
rule alluded to. After discussing with great abil- 
ity, and with much of the pomp and circumstance 
of the war oratorical, many of the loftiest and most 
enkindling topics which can claim the considera- 
tion of enlightened statesmen, or rouse the sensi- 
bilities of the patriot, he descends, with a balhotic 
impetuosity which has no parallel, to the exami- 
nation and elaborate discussion of one of the most 
petty and trivial topics which ever found its way 
into a grave deliberative assembly; and thus is he 
content to close his speech ! 

Well, sir, since the Senator has resolved that we 
shall look into the act of the Territorial Legisla- 
ture of Michigan, to which he says the sanction of 
our candidate for Presidential honors was actually 
given, let us examine it. It is as follows: 

AN ACT for the punishment of idle and disorderly persons. 

Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Governor and Judges of the 
Territory of Michigan, That any justice of the peace may 
sentence any vagrant, lewd, iille, or disorderly persons, stulh- 
born servants, common drunkards, night-walkers, pilferers, 
or any persons wanton or licentious in speech, indecent 
behavior, common railers or brawlers, such as neglect their 
calling and employment, misspend what ihey earn, and do 
not provide for themselves or families, to be whipped, not 
exceeding ten stripes, or to be delivered over to any consta- 
ble, to be hired out for tlie best wages that can be procured; 



12 



the proceeds of which to be applied to the use of the poor of 
the county. 

Made, and dated, and published at Detroit the 27th day of 
July, 1818. LEWIS CASS, 

Governor of the Territory of Michigan. 
A. B. WOODWARD, 
Presiding Judge of the Territory of Michigan. 
J. WITHERALL, 
JOHN GRIFFIN, 
Judges of the Territory of Michigan. 

Sir, this law is almost precisely correspondent 
with statutes to be found upon the statute-book of 
every State in this Union. I am informed that it is 
an exactcopy of the statute of Vermont on this sub- 
ject; and I know that there are but few States in 
the Union which have not at one time had a similar 
one. Whether General Cass introduced the bill 
in the Territorial Legislature, of which he was a 
component member, (for I understand that the 
whole legislative power was vested in the Governor 
and three judges of the Territorial court;) whetlier 
he sanctioned it when proposed by another; or 
whether it became a law in opposition to his judg- 
ment and wishes, we are not informed, nor do I 
deem it at all material to ascertain. For my part, 
I am perfectly willing that all such miscreants as 
are described in the Territorial law of Michigan 
may vote against us in the coming Presidential 
contest — being perfectly convinced that there will 
be a sufficient number of honest, industrious, or- 
derly Democratic voters to secure us the most 
signal triumph which has been achieved by the 



Democratic party since the overthrow of the elder 
Adams. 

And now, Mr. President, in closing this debate, 
I have only to repeat, what I have so often reitera- 
ted, that the leaders of the Whig party in this body 
have been called upon to defend their principles, and 
they have undertaken to do so, but have totally 
failed even to make a single distinct issue with us. 
They have been called upon to explain the princi- 
ples of their Presidential candidate, and they have 
all confessed their utter inability to do so. They 
have been requested to affix some definite inter- 
pretation to the published letters of General Tay- 
lor, and they have confessed themselves incompe- 
tent to the task. The Senator from Delaware says 
that General Taylor's political creed is to be found 
in his Allison letter. I have asked him what the 
Allison letter means upon several important points, 
and he acknowledges that he is unable to inform 
me. I have invited the honorable Senator's atten- 
tion specially to his own letter published in the 
autumn of 1846, in which he declares that all the 
old party issues of 1844 are to be decided by the 
Presidential contest of 1848. I have inquired of 
him whetherhe adheres to what he then published. 
He promised me an answer, but has closed his 
speech withoutcomplying with his promise. From 
this time forward, let no man assert that the 
Whigs, as a party, have any political principles; 
for certain it is, that if they have principles, they 
are such as they are ashamed to avow, and dare 
not attempt to vindicate by argument. 



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